What to watch: It’s binge weekend

So much to watch, so little time.

These day’s there’s no reason not to start your weekend binge during lunch at the office. Device roaming has made dry water cooler conversation a thing of the past, and now anyone can retreat to a set of ear-pods and an episode or two of something far more interesting than office ‘about last night’s.’

First to stream is the brilliantly wicked Friends and Neighbours on Apple TV.

Imagine you had it all. The corner office, the big fat salary and the giant house in the suburbs, a wife, two kids and the balance of the equation required for a happy life. And then you don’t. Because your boss takes you on a spa day, and while you’re bubbling it up in the jacuzzi, he fires you. Just like that.

It happened to Coop Cooper, played by John Hamm, in this show. And he starts looking for another job, of course, but struggles. Not because he’s not brilliant at being a hedge fund manager, but rather because his tainted reputation preceded him.

So, money, for a champagne lifestyle and a recently turned beer budget, becomes a problem. And of course, in-between that, your wife shacked up with your former best friend, your teenage kids are, well, being teenagers, and life ends up about as dandy as moulded cookies.

Rich man to robber

Coop turns to crime, naturally. He starts housebreaking and fencing the stuff he steals from his rich friends and neighbours.

All this while duping his accountant, his mates and keeping up appearances, having a drink and a braai with the very folk he relieves of their possessions at night.

It’s an absolute must-watch. The dark comedic undertones of this drama, the intertwined codswallop of the rich and the flaccid lives they lead a milieu to a whole lot of fun. There’s not an episode in this show that isn’t engaging, entertaining, and no-pee-break pausing boring.

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Also worth a binge is the reunion shows of The Mommy Club Van Die Hoofstad. The show was exceptional in the same way that bland cooking and dirty wine glasses at a fancy restaurant are memorable.

The reunion shows are no different, from the very latent intellectual comments through to the bitchiness and the plastic construct of personalities that score 5 out of 10 for warmth, through to the dull moderator of the conversation.

It’s worth watching only because, well, despite its awfulness, for some reason you want to keep on watching until the end. Subconsciously, perhaps, the reasons would be to hope that you witness the end, and no hope of return, of a franchise as exciting as watching paint dry. It’s Housewives of whatever, with occasional kids.

You final season’s a streaming moment

When the final season of You was released, it was a streaming moment. Still wondering what to watch. Then this is the binge opportunity of the weekend. New to You, then watch from its debut or just get back into Joe Goldberg right where he left everyone guessing and lusting for more at the end of the fourth season.

The final instalment is different. Way different.

Joe’s bloodlust never dies, but the dynamics and interplay shift unexpectedly, and the player becomes the played with meandering twists and sharp turns.

The two episodes at the start are somewhat confusing, and it takes a pause to settle into the show, but once you’re on track, there’s a Kyalami of drama and a racking up of corpses lined with the usual intrigue and sociopathic kind of cruelty.

You is a show to indulge in, revel in and binge. It has and always will be one of Netflix’s finest.

Sci-Fi Foundation rules, ok?

Finally, there’s also the new season of Foundation, the television adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s masterpiece on Apple TV and a new show on Showmax, Duster, that holds a lot of promise.

If the first couple of episodes of Duster are anything to go by, it’s an action comedy with new episodes released every week that will become a favourite binge-watch in the weeks to come.

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